Tuning-pin for piano-strings.



w IIIIIIIIIIIII Patented July 17, 1917.

A. w. CLAUDER & s. T. COLE. TUNING PIN FOR PIANO STRINGS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 9, I916.

ggdm I.

IIVI/ENTORS lint/Zar- W 67am- & Yb/7124a I! 6 0219 ATTORNEYS .W/T/I/ESSES I I (/1; g". I

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR W. CLAUDER AND SHERMAN T. COLE, 0F BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

TUNING-PIN FOR, PIANO-STRINGS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 17, 1917.

Application filed September 8, 1916. Serial No. 119,256.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, ARTHUR W'. CLAUDER and SHERMAN T. COLE, citizens of the United States, and residents of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tuning-Pins for Piano-Strings, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in tuning pins, for piano strings, such as are made of metal and threadably attached to the plate of a piano.

It is the purpose of our invention to improve upon tuning pins or screws of this character by designing the same in a manner to permit them to be made quickly and inexpensively by automatic machinery whereby the cost of production is materially lessened and the amount and weight of material reduced; further to design a hollow elongated form of pin or screw having a tapered end, a threaded surface, and a squared outer end portion whereby it may be turned and adjusted to any desired position; further to provide means such as a hole through the screw for the attachment thereto of the piano string, and particularly to design a screw of the above class that may be made by automatic machinery from a continuous strip of sheet metal when first formed in to a hollow tube.

With these and other objects in view the invention resides and consists in th construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claims hereto appended, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportion, size and minor details of construction within the scope of the claims may be resorted to without departure from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

Similar characters of reference denote like or corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the accompanying draw ings forming a part of this specification, and upon which,

Figure 1 shows a central vertical longitudinal sectional view through our improved form of hollow tuning pin.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 shows a top end View of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4- shows a section of a sheet metal strip that has been punched and sheared preparatory to being rolled to form one of the pins, and

Fig. 5 shows upon an enlarged scale a bushing such as is employed to connect the two holes of the pin.

Our improved pins are made from a strip of sheet metal that is first cut to shape and then rolled to form a hollow tube. This tube is further operated upon to shape and swage the tube to form it into hollow pins of uniform length having a suitably shaped head and tapered shank and pointed end.

Referring in detail to the letters of reference marked upon the drawings it will be noted from Fig. l, that the portion of the strip lying between the dotted lines a and Z2 represents so much of the strip as is re quired to make a pin.

The holes cc are punched in the blank and the edges (Z-(Z and c c trimmed, as shown, while in the flat. The tapered edges of the blank when brought together serve to form the tapered pin, leaving it largest through its central portion. In practice this strip after being punched and sheared, as above, is rolled to bring the two edges to gether to form a continuous tube. This brings the holes 0-0 before mentioned directly opposite each other in the tube so that they will properly aline. The tube is thus first formed in the machine after which the pin lengths indicated by the dotted lines are swaged and separated. and then turned in as indicated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 to form the smooth rounded ends and and the sides It for the head of the screw, as shown. The screw is thus largest through its upper body portion B and tapers slightly from that point to both the top and bottom ends. There are preferably four sides formed on the head portion which produces what is commonly known as a square head.

A sleeve A, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, is set in the holes of the body of the pin after which both ends i are flanged against the body of the pin to secure the sleeve in place and to form a hole through the pin to receive the end of the piano wire more readily when the latter is to be secured thereto.

The lower tapered shank portion of the screw is then finely threaded as at In to form 1 and having its ends closed and one end portion shaped to form a head and the other end threaded.

2. A hollow pin or screw formed of sheet metal and having one end portion closed and shaped to form a head and the other end threaded.

3. A hollow tuning pin or screw formed of sheet metal being largest through its intermediate hollow portion and having its ends closed and one end shaped to form a tapered square head.

A. A hollow pin or screw formed of sheet metal and having its end portions tapered and one end portion Swaged to form a head of lesser diameter than the body of t pin.

5. A tuning pin for piano strings formed of sheet metal and having the side portion of one end shaped to form a head and the other end portion tapered and threaded, and a hole'formed crosswise through the pin.

6. A tuning pin for piano strings formed of sheet metal and having the sides of one end shaped to form a head, a hole formed crosswise through the body of the pin, and a bushing set in said hole.

"2'. A tuning pin or screw for piano strings formed of sheet metal and having its ends swaged and closed and the side portion of one end shaped to form a head, a hole formed through the pin, and a bushing set in said hole.

Signed at Bridgeport in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut this 8th day of September A. D., 1916.

' ARTHUR W. CLAUDER.

SHERMAN T. COLE.

Witnesses:

RUTH M. W. KoeER, .C. M. NEWMAN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by ddressing the commissioner o Iatents.

Washington, D. 

